Method or process for the repair of broken or damaged glassware and the like



1943- A. M. LANDESMAN ET AL ,33

METHOD 0R PROCESS FOR THE REPAIR OF BROKEN OR DAMAGED GLASSWARE AND THELIKE Filed Jan. 10, 1942 FIG.3.

FIG. 5.

mmvrons ALFRED M. LANDESMAN UGENE LANDESMAN AT folg vEY' ment or toolPatented Nov. 2, 1943 v Alfred M. Landesman anEugene L ndesmn Louis, Mo.

Appligatjpgg January 10, 19 4 g v Serial liq,

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d W eiere we Per-t e the w mpenying 1? which- I F 3 1 .i peiepe iwe WW iii i f i b is: er ele 9i alesfiwere w th miner pe i eee QrPtPeI-QS ,.iiRP dXF ?1QQQ enema rep ir we i et mfiee 9; w isk-- to A stantiallyinitial or origirigl ggiggiggyi s ,1 v

out the refractory material dulling the glass when the intense heat isapplied.

The refractory material B that we preferably water being added at timeof application to malse a paste of the desired consistency.

While we prefer to employ a refractory mate-,1 rial B of the compositionnamed,it will be under stood that any other material suitable for thepurpose may be equally well used, it -being only.

the torch E through the other, the apertures or Openings 6, 6', beingsufficiently large to permit a certain amount of freedom for torch orblowpipe manipulation.

The number and position of such openings or apertures 6, 6', depend uponthe desires and skill of the workmenand should-be located so thatobjects" A of various types and sizes disposed within the oven orfurnace D may be readily accessible for torchor blow-pipe working, itbeing,

of course, obvious that the article A, when distioried in sucha mannerthat the preferably exessential that the material be of such a nature asnot to chemically react with the glass at any time and as to have theproperties and characterposed break lines or cracks or joints betweenthe .-.-portions (1 and a thereof will face, and be accessible by meansof the torch, blow-pipe, or the like E through,--one or more of suchapertures or openings 6, 6'.

istics of being capable of (1) withstanding, when set and hard,relatively high temperatures ranging up to approximately, 2000F., andhave'a coefficient of expansion comparable to that of theglass-structure of .the article A'being repaired,'so as, when heated,toeliminate the exertion upon the; article of, any extraordinarystresses that might disrupt, break, or,otherwise damage the encasedarticle A, and ,(2) ready removal by cracking ori otherwise followingcompletion of the repair operation mentioned and presently describedmore in detail. i .Such refractorymaterial is also initially, as wehavestated, in the form of a powder and may be mixed with a suitablevehicle,such, for instance, as water, forconve'nient application uponthe article A in theform of a paste of the desired'consistency, as wehave mentioned, and

which-will subsequently dry or set without material shrinkage andwithout exerting any impairing or damaging stresses upon the article Abeing repaired. I

The article A, so encased and supported by means of the refractorymaterial, is allowedto set and stand over a relatively long period "oftime, approximately twenty-four hours, for enabling air-drying of thematerial B, and when the material B has becomethoroughly'dry and set,the article A is placed in a heatingfurnace or oven D of any suitablestandard or common form or type, .with the exception that the body d ofthe oven or furnace D is provided with a plurality of sets of openingsor apertures 6, 6', the openings of each pair being spaced more or lessclosely together for purposes presently appearing.

We might here state that the oven or furnace D is heated by any.suitable means capable preferably of precise and accurate control, andfor such purpose we have found that electric heat--. ing elements 0 lendthemselves efficiently tosthe requirements of precise controladvantageous in the practicing of our process. In this same connection,it may be remarked that the oven or furnace D is preferably of anysuitable relatively small-size refractory brick t'ype, except, as wehave stated, that the furnace D, in the walls of its body d, should bebreached in anumber of convenient places for providing suitable open-iings or apertures 6, 6', of such'dimensions as to afford vision' intothe, furnace and" insertion thereinto of a torch, blow-pipe, or othersuitable heating instrument or toolE for working the glass-structure ofthe article A being treatedor repaired. We might add that it is mostconven ient that such apertures of openings 6, 6', be in pair relation,so that the operator may observe the work through one apertureWhile'manipulating Thetemperature of the oven or furnace D is now slowlyor gradually raised to so-called safety range anywhere from 800 F. to1500" F., depending upon the nature and glass-structure of the articleA. The initial heating should, of course, be. performed so as to preventthe breaking or cracking of the glass object under repair, and it may behere remarked that some glassware may be brought up to such safety rangein less time than'iothers and that a workman familiar with glasswarewillbe readily able to determine by inspection the type of glassware andthe approximate range at which the glass maybe safely heated. Experiencewith a wide variety of glassware has indicated that a fairlysafe-heating range will comprise an initial elevation of about 50 perhour for the firstfour hours and a subsequent elevation of about perhour for the next six or eight hours, the oventemperature being broughtup, as we have stated, to a range of from 800 F. to 1500 Fl, dependingupon the glass-structure of the article A being repaired. We mightremark that the optimum temperature which should be reached may betermed the safety range, and, again, such range will vary fordifferentglassware; Experience, however, hasshown that, for allpracticalpurposes, this heating will fall within the. range of from 800F. to 1500 F., depending upon the nature and glass.- structure, that isto say, the formula or compositiono-f the particular article A ofglassware being treated. vWe might remark further that it has been foundby extensive experiment that practically all types of standard or commonglasswarev may be heated within the range mentioned Without cracking orbreaking, although it will, of course, be understood that a glass-workerof experience and skill may readily determine the type or structure ofglass. which is being repaired and immediately associate withsuch glasssome particularfstage Within the stated range which is most suited-forthe purposes in hand. Y

'In'any event, entirely satisfactory resultsmay be attained within therange outlined, and once the article A has been brought up to thesocalled" safety range, a lighted-blow-pipe, torch, or other suitabletool E is inserted thrq gh one of the apertures'or-openings 6, 6, inthewall dof the oven D and'the flamethereof applied by the operator backandforth along the various cracks or joints between the exposedarticle-portions a, a, the temperature of the exposed parts of thearticle A' being thereby raised to the fusingor coalescing point;which/may range anywhere from'1500f F.to 25 00" depending'upon thenature and composition of the glass-structure of the particular articleA. 1

estates 8 Necessarihmthis step in our pr cess must be carefullyperformed. so o pr terit d sto tion .o deformation of the lass at andaround the joints between the or ort ons a, a, the arti le bein pref r bso dis osed as to e ite.- inate anymisn aoihs movement of th viseld gass. and the he d r fract ry coat prov ded b the materia :1 fo the soyednertien o the art cle A functionin as :axmold t ef icie t y maintainthe .fa m and hamper thereo Where t e aks-o creeks bein re a red a esmall and the pieces or fragments 41, a, fit eatly to ether. th torch shd pr ra ly have a t p .e nenahlenf em ttin a very fin pointed flame.Where, on the other hand, the cracks or breaks are rough and ragged andmarginally do not fit neatly together, a broader flame should beemployed for effecting juncture therebetween. In ordinary cases,however, a standard hydrogen blowpipe or torch will yield a flamesufficiently hot and of sufiicient size for accomplishing efficientlythe desired purpose.

The article A, while being so treated or worked, is disposed to thevision of the workman through the adjacent aperture 6 or 6', as the casemay be, and when the juncture lines between the fragments a, a, of thearticle A have, through fusion or coalescence, substantially visuallydisappeared, the torch E is removed and the oven D then permitted togradually cool to room temperature, when the refractory supported andrepaired article A is removed from the furnace D, immersed in water,which quickly effects a breaking down and removal of the set refractorymaterial B, and again put to a useful purpose.

We may add that, where the object or article A is damaged in such amanner that a plurality of chips or fragments a have been broken out,the damage may be referred to as a compound break-out. Again, theseveral chips or portions or may fit neatly and accurately back intoplace, or there may be small parts missing, so that, when the availableparts have been fitted back into place, there is still a small hole,such as that indicated at a in Figure 2. In either case, the parts arefitted back into place as neatly and as precisely as possible and thearticle A completely invested, as we have described, care being taken toleave spaces within the investment material B in the region where theglass is missing, so that the glass will fuse into the empty spaces, asat a, as Well as coalesce across the close-fitting edges of the breaks.Where the lost parts are small, the repaired object A will besubstantially as good as new and the area in which the repair was madewill not be disfiguring. Should the glass around the area that was fusedbecome dull or even "bumpy through or by application of excess heat,such defects may be readily removed by the usual means for grinding orpolishing glass.

It should be understood that changes and variations in the steps of ourprocess may be made and substituted for those herein set forth anddescribed without departing from the nature and principle of ourinvention.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is,

1. That process of glassware repair which comprises fitting the majorand minor parts of a broken glass article into original abuttingrelation, then by means of a refractory material disposed substantiallycompletely over the major and minor parts of such article, except uponone side and at the line of abutment of said parts, approximatelycovering and encasing the article and m art le exc tup ade nd at theline of abutment of said parts,

permitting said plastic material to set and harden and therebyapproximately covering and encasing the article and its major and minorparts in and by such plastic material, disposing the refractorycoveredarticle within an oven, raising the temperature of the oven forpreliminarily heating the housed article within a safety range, and thenby means of a heating tool applied directly upon said exposed parts orfragments subjecting said parts or fragments to more intense heat forfusing the same together.

3. That process of glassware repair which comprises fitting the majorand minor parts of a broken glass article into original abuttingrelation, then disposing a refractory material in plastic formsubstantially completely over the major and minor parts of such article,except upon one side and at the line of abutment of said parts,permitting the plastic material to set and harden and therebyapproximately covering and encasing the article and its major and minorparts in and by such plastic material, disposing the refractorycoveredarticle within an oven, raising the temperature of the oven forpreliminarily heating the housed article within a safety range from 800F. to 1500 F., and then by means of a heating tool applied directly uponsaid exposed parts or fragments subjecting said parts or fragments to amore intense heat ranging from 1500 F. to 2500 F. for fusing the sametogether.

4. That process of glassware repair which comprises fitting the majorand minor parts of a broken glass article into original abuttingrelation, then disposing a refractory material in plastic formsubstantially completely over the major and minor parts of such article,except upon one side and at the line of abutment of said parts,permitting said plastic material to set and harden and therebyapproximately covering and encasing the article and its major and minorparts in and by such plastic material, disposing the refractorycoveredarticle within an oven, raising the temperature of the oven forpreliminarily heating the housed article within a safety range, then bymeans of a heating tool applied directly upon said exposed parts orfragments subjecting said parts or fragments to more intense heat forfusing the same together, then permitting the article to gradually coolto room temperature, and then removing the refractory coating from thearticle.

5. That process of glassware repair which comprises fitting the majorand minor parts of a broken glass article into original abuttingrelation, then by means of a refractory material disposed substantiallycompletely over the major and minor parts of such article, except uponone side and at the line of abutment of said parts, approximatelycovering and encasing the article and its major and minor parts withinand by such refractory material, disposing the encased article a moreintense heat ranging from l500 Fjt0 2500 F. for fusing the'brokenpartsthereof together, and then removing the article from the oven anddisplacin the refractory material. 6. That process of glassware repairwhich comprises fitting the major and. minor parts of a broken glassarticle into original abutting relation, then by means of a refractorymaterial disposed substantially completely over the major and minorparts of such article, except upon one side and at the line of abutmentof said parts, ap-

proximately covering and encasing the article and its majorand minorpart's'within and by such refractory material, disposing the encasedarticle within an oven andpreliminarily heating the encased articlewithin a s'a'fety'range from 800-'F. to 1500 F., then subjecting the setparts of the encased article at the junctions therebetween to-a moreintense heatranging from 1500 F. to 2500 F. for fusingthe same-together,and then removing the article from the oven and displacingthe'refractory material.

ALFRED M. LANDESMAN.

EUGENE LANDESMAN.

